Snapshots
by A Soggy Sandwich
Summary: A collection of short stories and drabbles focusing on Zer0 and Gaige; sometimes as a couple and sometimes not. May contain multiple interpretations of what Zer0 actually is. All drabbles unrelated to each other unless stated otherwise.
1. Touch

Her hand starts at his chest, innocently enough. He can't bring himself to mind, not with the haze of sleep settled comfortably on his mind. The position isn't that comfortable, either, but he's in her bed and she's next to him, idly reading a comic book spread over her bare thighs with her glasses perched precariously on the tip of her nose. Gaige doesn't even seem to be aware of what she's doing as her fingers subconsciously move along his skin, the touch so light it seems almost accidental.

Zer0 finds himself twitching, just a little, keenly aware of how sensitive his pale flesh is. He's been in his suit for so long that he might have forgotten what it felt like to have someone else's hands on his body, touching and stimulating long-deprived nerves. The sensation is indescribable, pleasant and agonizing all at once. He's not sure if he wants her to stop or dig her fingers into him even harder.

The girl doesn't even seem to realize that her hand is dipping down precariously low, tracing the contours of his abdomen and further down. He does twitch then, sucking in a sharp breath as the last remnants of sleep leave his mind entirely. Yet it isn't until she finds his hip, index finger poised innocently above the distinct line of the inguinal ligament, that Zer0 finally speaks up.

"Gaige."

Simple, yet effective. The redhead jerks out of her reverie and looks down at him, at where her hand is, and startles back. The book falls off her thighs and onto the sheets, but Gaige is too focused on bringing a hand to her face to hide the embarrassed blush blossoming across her cheeks. "Shit, shit- I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention- I'm really sorry-"

Yet despite the apology, Zer0 finds that he misses the touch and he's beginning to regret alerting her to the precarious location of where her hand had been. Perhaps with more gall than he should possess, the assassin manages to shake his head and close his metal fingers around her wrist, easing her back into a similar, albeit less provocative position. Her palm comes to a rest against his belly, and Gaige looks at him dubiously before relenting to his silent request with a short nod.

It doesn't keep the blush off of her face, now that she's making conscious effort to keep her hand still. But Zer0 knows her well, and knows that soon she'll forget again and that her fingers will wander of their own accord.

He thinks he wouldn't mind it if they did.


	2. Lies

future!au

* * *

_I'll be back_, he promises himself, feet silent in the cool sand. The blue hues of dawn have begun to kiss the sky, too early for anyone to be awake. No one has noticed his absence. He pretends to not notice the way his chest aches with each step.

_I'll be back_, he texts over the ECHOnet days later. The message is encrypted, but he knows she is smart enough to unlock it and know who it's from. She's noticed his absence, they all have, but he doesn't have to be there to notice it has hit her the hardest. He imagines her tears, then reloads his gun and imagines no more.

_"I'll be back,"_ he says weeks later, careful to capture nothing more on the recording. It takes longer to find a secure place to drop it off, where it cannot be traced back to him. Whether or not the device will make it to Pandora is another matter. He has other things to concern himself with.

_I'll go back_, he finds himself thinking months later. The barrel of the gun in his hand is warm, the target unmoving. Disappointing. What is interesting is the newsfeed the poor bastard had been listening to before a bullet found its way into his grey matter. More galactic unrest. He takes note that the wars are moving close to Pandora, but nothing more. _One more mission, then I'll go back_.

_I'm going back_, the notion hits him during the middle of a hit. Another dead-end. All this work, and still nothing about One. The frustration is eating at him. It's time to go back to Pandora. That was his last viable lead. He will retrace his footsteps. The decision settles, comfortable and alien. Except he receives a ping and without even second-guessing he finds himself picking through coordinates to the Gamma Sector. _If this doesn't work, I'll go back_.

_I thought you were coming back_, the message reads. How she's managed to hack into his personal computer, he doesn't know. It does anger and frustrate him, though. She's compromised him. Sometime urges him to respond, and then he painstakingly rewrites the entire system to get her out.

_Wait_.

Time passes. The nagging thought of going back doesn't return as often. He kills and steals his way through the galaxy. Those who know his name soon find themselves dead. Every lead to One goes stale. The lack of information is irritating. He presses on. Determined.

_Please come back soon_, is what the latest message reads. He eyes it disdainfully for hours. Does she not realize how important this is? Does she not understand that her life is very well in danger? He doesn't respond, it's not worth the risk. The computer is scrapped. He needs to go off the grid, far away from annoyingly insistent girls who could very well blow his cover.

He doesn't think of going back any more. She doesn't send any more messages. At last he has the peace to continue unhindered.

A long, long time later there is a signal, buzzing and insistent. It takes him longer than it should to hack, but it breathes life into his mission. The level of encryption is good, and he only manages the first. The others are far too advanced. He takes it to Pandora when his messages go unanswered – or what remains of it. War has ravaged the planet, the glassing is visible from space. But on that planet is the only person he trusts with this.

Except she isn't there anymore. No one is. Pandora has been rendered inhospitable by the many corporations vying for its resources. Nothing has survived the wars and the only things that remain are the mining ships probing from orbit.

_I kept my promise_, he thinks as he looks upon the devastation before him. _I promised I would come back. But I was too late._


	3. Parallel

When Gaige envisioned all the ways she would probably die, she never thought it'd be because of betrayal. Yet there she is, cornered and alone, weaponless, the sound of a gunshot still ringing in her ears. The bullet didn't miss its mark, but her assassin is too particular to end it that quickly. One shot to clip her arm and render the spawning rod useless, pieces of metal components at her feet.

Then she sees him, the glow off of his sword giving him a ghastly appearance as he advances, step by agonizingly slow step. And Gaige blubbers, fear settling like ice in her gut, tears sliding down her cheeks. Blubbering, but not demanding explanation. No pleading questions, no last-minute declarations. The blade rises into the air, and Gaige doesn't even have the courage to face him in her final moments, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.

"A final message / Holloway sends his regards / Bye, mechromancer."

The pain never comes. Gaige wakes with a strangled scream, covered in her own sweat and salty tears, safely back in her room. She cries freely, knowing it's nothing more than a nightmare, but still reeling from the remnants of fresh terror.

And despite everything, some of that fear still sits with her when she sees Zer0 again. He is, after all, an assassin. Just like she's the one sporting the highest bounty on Pandora.


	4. Perpendicular

companion to _Parallel_

* * *

He wakes to the crack of a gunshot and the sound of a body hitting the pavement. Zer0 jolts upright on his berth, pistol drawn and eyes scanning the perimeter cautiously. Of course there's nothing, the area is secure and safe, he's alone with nothing more than the remnants of a fleeting dream.

Except he can't settle down now, too wide-awake and with too much adrenaline pumping through his systems. So instead he finds himself getting up and leaving.

Gaige's window is cracked, and he slides in with ease. She's peacefully sleeping, curled up in a pile of pillows and blankets. No blood. No gunshot wound. She's safe, alive.

Zer0 slides in the bed behind her, taking care not to disturb her slumbers. One of his arms wrap around her waist, taking comfort in the warmth of her skin, the sound of her breathing. He closes his eyes, knowing the nightmare won't return. Not tonight, at least.


	5. Lazy

modern!au

* * *

Usually, when Zer0 opened his brown eyes in the morning he was already wide awake and ready to get out of bed. That morning, when he came to, it was a rare instance of lethargy that hung over his body warmly and refused to allow him to move. His limbs weren't cooperating, and moving even his fingers was akin to swimming through molasses, thick and heavy. After a few moments of failed attempts, he soon gave up on moving at all.

Judging by the light filtering through the blinds, or lack thereof, he deduced it was raining outside. The gentle roll of thunder only confirmed that a few seconds later. The room was otherwise quiet, which was rare in and of itself. A quick glance around told him that Gaige was already up and about, evidenced by the absence of one of his shirts he had left out the night before.

Not that it took long to see where the young woman had gone off to. She came into view with quiet footsteps, wearing his shirt and a pair of panties (his personal favorite, the ones trimmed with lace) and nothing else. Her hair was wet, and Gaige toweled at the short strands distracted, up until she caught his gaze lingering over the suds still clinging to her damp thighs.

"Mornin', sexy," she greeted, leaning over the futon to kiss what wasn't obscured of Zer0's face. He closed his eyes, made a noise, but otherwise didn't respond. Gaige tipped her head in concern. "You feeling alright? I don't think I've ever seen you being this lazy before."

Zer0 frowned, looking back at the woman, lips thin as he formed a question. "Do you need to go to the shop today?"

How they went from Zer0 being lazy to her job at the Jiffy Lube, Gaige doesn't know. Regardless she shook her head with a little smile, splattering water droplets here and there. "Nope," she answered. "Got the day off. I'm all yours. Do with me what you will."

That's all the response Zer0 needed. He forced his arm out, fingers touching the redhead's thigh, cupping the back of her knee. "Come back to bed," he said, more like a gentle demand. And Gaige had the gall to laugh, but did as told.

If he was going to be lazy that day, might as well be lazy with an accomplice.


	6. Amortentia

hogwarts!au

* * *

Zer0 makes a distasteful sound but, after a stern glare from Gaige, doesn't stop the counter-clockwise motion of his finger, absently moving the stirring rod along. He doesn't care for their current assignment and doesn't bother to hide his nonchalance at all, though Gaige ribs him about getting good marks. If anything she's the only reason he bothered showing up once he realized what the coursework was going to be for that day, knowing she'd never let him hear the end of it if he skipped out.

At his side Gaige grumbles under her breath as she slices ashwinder eggs. The heat they give off means she has to constantly refreeze them with a charm, and finding a balance between cutting and casting has been a pain. Regardless she nudges him with her hip and he obligingly moves aside so she can drop the eggs within the mixture, alternating the rotation as per instructed by the book.

"Ugh. This potion is a paiiiin. D'you think we got it?" Gaige asks, and Zer0 opens his mouth to answer, only to be hit full-force by the scent right as the liquid takes on its distinct pearly sheen.

He can make out the tatami and ozone easily, which isn't much of a surprise. But it's the third, and strongest, scent that takes a bit of mulling over. It's sweet, almost fruity, and almost nauseatingly pleasant. But Zer0 can't for the life of him make out where he's smelled it before and by the time he thinks he's almost got it Gaige has bottled the potion and the smell dissipates from memory.

It isn't until much later that he smells it again, when he's on the train back and Gaige has just changed out of her robes back into muggle-clothes. That sweetly fruity scent wafts off of her vest and he almost chokes from surprise.

Antifreeze. The amortentia had smelled of antifreeze. Just like Gaige.


	7. Content

_future!au_

* * *

The wound isn't as bad as it could have been, Gaige notes. Most companies have transitioned from solid bullets to energy-based weaponry by now, and that means the wound is usually cauterized before it's a problem. This one is no different, and the redhead clicks her tongue as she jets it closed with a hypo just to be safe.

"Old man," she notes with an affectionate smirk, "getting harder for you to dodge?"

Zer0 exhales, body relaxing on the bench. He doesn't respond verbally, but he doesn't need to. One of his leg has been demolished and he's got a puncture wound in his abdomen, and here Gaige is poking fun at his age as she mops up what remains. His fingers find her cheek, just for a moment, and the woman smiles down at him.

"It's gonna take me a few hours to fix that leg. You're lucky the port wasn't touched, or there'd be even more of you to pick up from all over the floor." She kisses him then, slow and syrupy sweet, and he hums pleasantly against her lips. Once upon a time the notice of their relationship had made him uncomfortable, had twisted his gut into knots. Now he finds himself longing for her during his more extensive missions, wanting her mouth and her body next to his own, the clawmarks on his shoulders.

Getting older was disgusting. But he had Gaige, and that was enough to make it bearable.


	8. Seventeen

She's naked. Zer0 isn't.

Which is new and more than a little awkward. Way more than a little awkward. Usually they're both clothed and not nearly this intimate, but then usually they wouldn't have fucked in the truckbed of a technical while waiting for the engine to cool while out in the middle of the Dust. So Gaige guesses that the whole suddenly being naked thing isn't too far of a leap because neither of them had been in any state of undress for that incident and maybe it was about damn time even if the sex had only happened once.

But this isn't a sexy sort of naked, and the way Zer0's hands touch her is anything but a subtle promise of naughty things to come. He's still clothed, dressed in his suit and helmet, but the fact that he had removed his gloves is exposure enough.

How they had gotten there, Gaige would never know. The door was closed, the bed was cold, and his inhuman hands were warm. Which was new and interesting. It hadn't been hard to guess the Zer0 was an alien (not after their first coupling wow that has been a surprise), but his hands were another matter. Hard and soft, flesh and not. She could guess from his hands alone that he wasn't soft like a human was, but in fact more than likely covered in a carapace with yielding skin between the joints. His long fingers were not unlike her own on the left hand; firm phalanges and vulnerable joints between. No nails, no talon or ending point at all.

Yet probably the most interesting thing about his hands were the natural groves neatly trenched into him. They swirled in a neat pattern as if sculpted, exactly like the markings on the ruins scattered around Pandora, occasionally rippling with a faint bio-luminescent glow. Not unlike a working circuit board, Gaige thought.

And with those hands he touches her, all eight alien fingers pressing to her skin. It tickles, sometimes, and she has to bite her lip to keep from giggling, just like she has to look up at the ceiling and not at Zer0's faceplate least she blush to the roots of her hair. Though she had agreed to it, this is still embarrassing and Zer0 is not above teasing her.

He's too focused to tease her right now, however. Much to Gaige's relief. Instead he focuses his attention on mapping out the dip of her neck, the hint of her collar, the curve of her breasts. And that's where his focus deviates just a little, the tips of his fingers pinching the titanium barbell slotted neatly through one of her nipples. He doesn't twist it, but the slight tug is enough to get Gaige to gasp, her toes curling against his thigh.

"Your heart-rate increased. Do you require a break? You have been shaking." Had she been shaking? She couldn't tell. But his observation does coerce a grumble from her, even if she knows he's being genuinely concerned by the way the questionmark flashes over his mask.

"I'm fine. Really; you're being so damn gentle that everything tickles. You can rough me up a bit, I _am_ the girl that sliced off her own arm and then hooked the nerves up to a few wires. My pain tolerance is pretty fucking good if I say so myself. But if you're gonna to keep tugging my piercing like that I might have to flip us over and pin you down for a bit. NBD, just fair warning."

Zer0 listens to her monologue, fingers straying down her chest until it is only his thumb still touching the piercing in question. Then he leans in, close enough that Gaige can see her face reflected in his helmet. "Is that a challenge? You know better than to challenge me, silly girl."

Instead of replying right away, the redhead's eyes cross as she mentally counts the syllables of what he just said. The number clicks. It makes her pout up at him with a completely unamused expression. "Dude I know you aren't still haikuing at me while you're groping my tits."

The laughter that greets her is not the most reassuring sound – it's the laughter Zer0 usually gives after burying a bullet right in some poor bastard's brain matter, wicked and amused. One of his hands moves up, tapping her forehead, and the smiley face that lights up his mask causes an unsettling feeling to sink in her gut.

"Seventeen."

It takes a long moment, during which Gaige's expression goes completely vacant, mouth moving silently as she sounds it out. When she finishes, reaffirming that yes she had spoken exactly seventeen syllables, her expression is one of indignant outrage.

"Oh my fucking god I did _not_ just haiku back at you!"

And when Zer0's only response is to laugh harder, their previous activity is completely abandoned as the girl grabs up the pillow she had been lying on and uses it to pummel the assassin across the faceplate.


	9. Cold

Her fingers touch his mask and for once he's not shying away, doesn't command her to stop or make any motion at all to hint displeasure. She's curious, he's wary, but the mask yields anyway. Up, up, up. Alien skin, faint inhuman luminescent lines trenched into flesh. Proof of what he isn't, of what he is.

With a gentle care she had only reserved for Deathtrap, she pushes the hard shell that much further, reveals millimeters more of his face. His neck, his jaw, his chin, his mouth. That is where she stops, metal fingers straying over what might have been his lips, touching with innocent curiosity.

It's enough. She smiles at him, slots the faceplate back into place, and backs away. No kisses, no sloppy displays of affection.

Even beneath the visor his skin feels cold from where the metal of her fingers had touched him.


	10. Play

The place he's chosen to perch is a distance away from the others, atop the rocky cliff overlooking what has become the vault hunters' preferred swimming hole. Water lapped at his legs, cascading down into a fall, the drop short enough for anyone to jump into the cove below.

They're swimming, playing some mock-up game of keep-away with a volleyball. Everyone except Zer0. It's hard to think about much of anything except the assassin sent to kill him, and the mysterious stranger who taunted him with that cryptic message. So while he watches the other vault hunters splashing about like a group of drowning stalkers, he's taken a spot out of their way to mull over who this "One" character could possibly be.

"You know, you're going to give yourself a migraine if you think too hard," Gaige interrupts cheerfully from behind him, toeing over rocks under she's sitting next to him, not even an inch away. "One, again?"

She knows him well, he has to admit. Better than anyone else. Sometimes he wonders of the repercussions, wonders if there will come a day when he's forced to kill her to keep her silence. For now Zer0 pushes that though aside, not particularly liking the way it sits nauseatingly in his gut. "Yes," is all he admits.

At his side the girl snorts, fingers idly tugging at the hem of the bathing suit wrap around her waist, still wet from her jaunt in the water. "You know you don't really have anything to worry about, yeah? I mean, we're a team. We took out countless badasses, killed Handsome Jack, stood up to everything that's come our way, and just today we killed a giant lobster-dude-thing. Even if all our would-be assassins hadn't gotten their dumb asses killed, we still woulda taken out of all of 'em."

That's not the point, though. And Zer0 doesn't bother elaborating his true thoughts. If anything, all he can give her is a nod to show he's listening, and to maybe alleviate her concern for him.

It must work though, because Gaige smiles and stands, brushing sediment from the back of her thighs. "Good. Now get your sexy ass down there so I can kick it at beach-ball." And she moves, as he knew she would all along, reaching out to nudge him off the ledge and into the water below.

Except her hand passes clean through his hologram, and she's taken off-balance, notably stunned that he had never been actually sitting there. The real Zer0 appears behind her, emoting a :D, and there's a hilarious moment where Gaige makes the most amusing expression of outraged betrayal right before he presses his foot to her butt and pushes her off instead.

Admittedly, it was a much more enjoyable way to occupy his time.


	11. Evidence

By chance he sees them in the mirror as he pulls on his suit. There are marks on his back, dividing along his shoulderblades. The asymmetry is striking. One his left there is a series of scratches. On the right, bruises. The sight stirs a memory of nails biting into flesh, of metal pressing hard into bone, of pleasure singing so sweetly through his body that he hadn't even noticed the sting of pain. He eyes his reflection and finishes dressing. The marks will be hidden, but the ache will remain.


	12. Indulgence

It's almost like a strange form of communication. Right before Gaige slips into bed she clicks the lock on the door, then lifts the window up by exactly two inches, just enough to let the night breeze filter in and chill her room. Then she collapses onto the mattress and curls up into a nest of blankets and pillows. Exactly two hours later she's pulled out of her slight drowsing by the sound of the window sliding shut, and the subsequent weight that settles against her back. She doesn't need to turn around to know it's him, not when she feels his arms slide around her waist and his chest against her spine. It's easier to sleep in his presence, she's found. At least Zer0 doesn't seem to mind indulging her.


	13. Subtlety

The thresher's body hit the ground with enough force that the ground trembled beneath their feet and abruptly the sound of gunfire ceased. No one noticed the sixth member of their group cloak and exit, not that it was a surprise. Zer0 often slipped away when they weren't paying attention.

What did startle the party was when the youngest member stowed her gun, flipped around, and waved as she walked off. "Alright bitches, I've got a stick-shift to maintenance so I am _out_!"

It was a good minute, and long after she had gone, before they turned to one another and wondered aloud at what the hell Gaige had meant.


	14. Prize

Sometimes, they play a game.

Not an ECHO-sim or board game, but something more… involving. More personal. Something for just the two of them, for when Zer0 gets antsy and just needs to blow some steam, or just to keep his skills sharp. And there is a reward, because how could there not be? She gets as much out of it as he does. But the point wasn't the reward itself, but getting to it. The chase.

Quite literally, in fact. He gives Gaige twenty-four hours to run from him before giving chase after her. No hints about where she's vanished to, no warnings at all. She's somewhere on Pandora and he has to find her without even a marker to point him in the right direction.

It can take anywhere from a day to a week, depending on how devious she's being. The longest he's gone in search for her was ten days, when she had been a conniving little sneak and chose to hide out in Sanctuary itself. But he's learned her tricks and adapted well.

Five days is his current marker, the timer still counting down. Gaige isn't in any of her usual spots this time; he took a day checking them all over meticulously. It takes a lot of interrogating, but eventually he pieces together the more likely choices of where she is. Shade's actually the one to give him his biggest lead, after scaring the man senseless into revealing that the redhead had actually refilled the dry well just the other day.

Sure enough he finds her in the depths of Hayter's Folly, casually lounging near one of the many freshwater pools. She's dressed in a bikini with one of her rifles laid across her bare thighs just in case, and from where he is he knows the red hue barely touching her cheeks is sunburn. Regardless, be it from the sight of her or the exhilaration of the chase itself, Zer0 finds himself almost painfully aroused.

"Took you long enough." She even has the gall to grin cheekily once he closes in. No last-ditch efforts to flee. The girl surrenders with her hands on his shoulders and her lips on his visor. "Don't worry," Gaige assures once she catches the hesitant way his fingers touch her hips. "I've been staking this place out for days. It's secure."

And that's all the encouragement Zer0 needs to claim the _real_ prize of their little game.


	15. Division

brainwashed!zer0 au (inspired by tumblr roleplay not my own)

* * *

There's fear in her eyes. It's a certain type of fear, the kind he only sees when his prey knows that they are about to die. Some fight in their last moments, but she isn't. Not fighting, but still terrified. A hopeless sort of situation she knows there's no escape from, and accepts what is going to happen. Usually he would be disgusted by such weakness, but for some reason he cannot help but admire this girl.

His sword is touching her throat and he can see her swallowing back tears even as her eyes grow wet and her cheeks darken. But she doesn't cry, even if a few sniffles manage to get past involuntarily. He doesn't know why he hesitates to end her life; she's already answered his questions to his satisfaction and he doesn't need her alive to salvage her blueprints and technology, but he does. Almost as if his body is subconsciously refusing to kill this girl. Which is a stupid notion in and of itself; he's killed thousands of people, why would this tiny redhead be any different?

But she is. There's just something about her that stills his hand. Something about the sadness in her green eyes, or the hurt look on her face. And it's enough that, when she quietly asks if she can at least tell her dad goodbye before he kills her, he (surprisingly) agrees with a jerk of his head. Of course he watches as she unclips her ECHO device slowly from her belt, the way her flesh fingers quake over the buttons. No voice, just text, but he reads ever character she types out just to be sure she's not pulling a fast one on him. Which she doesn't. A very simple "i love you, daddy" is tapped out and then sent before he rips the communicator from her fingers and crushes it in his own.

Shock makes her jump, the tip of his sword nicking her enough that a small gash appears, already weeping blood. But before he finishes the job he's begun, he tips his helmet to the side menacingly and voices the question that's been burning the back of his mind since he's cornered her. "You're going to die. Why do you refuse to fight? I will not be quick."

Before answering him she licks her lips, mulling over her words. And then she looks up, and he can clearly see the pain in her eyes even as the first of her tears fall. "Because. Because I know you, Zer0. I know what you're capable of, and I know it won't matter if I did try to fight. But even more importantly than that, because you were one of the first friends I've ever had. I don't want to die, but I can't stop you from killing me. So… yeah."

Something about the name she calls him sits uncomfortably in his gut. It's not his name, she doesn't know his name. She doesn't know _him_. She's lying, she's been lying since he's come face-to-face with her. And yet… what if she isn't?

The man who isn't Zer0 grits his teeth from behind the mask and raises his sword, pretending the noise that escapes his throat isn't an anguished sob.


	16. Soul

His Dark Materials!AU. Gaige's daemon is a lovebird, Zer0's is a huntsman spider.

* * *

It had happened by complete accident, the first time they touched each other's daemon. The attack had been completely unexpected, and in the sudden panic they had scooped up the wrong daemon, Zer0 tucking Gaige's into the compartment on his suit and Gaige easing his into a pocket on her vest. Neither of them knew why their hearts had decided to somersault into their throats for those few moments, or why they instinctively kept close during the encounter.

Later they discovered their mistake, once they were alone and it was safe for their daemons to come out. Zer0 had undone the pouch where his own daemon usually rested, and was stunned to see the bright plumage of the little parrot from within its depths. Gaige, likewise, was stunned when she saw the long legs of a spider emerging from her pocket.

Somehow, the girl recovered far quicker than he did, and though she blushed and sputtered in mortified embarrassment, she still thoughtfully unzipped her vest and laid it down so Zer0's daemon could crawl free unaided. "I'm so sorry-" he heard her saying, more to the spider than to himself, apologizing for touching her. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

And then he was… moved. Heartened that Gaige had been so concerned about accidentally harming his soul. When he looked down again, he noticed that the bird in his pouch was not reflecting even an ounce of Gaige's anxiety, he had been completely content enough to fall asleep.


End file.
